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Eclipse Watchers-Get Ready for Midnight at Midday
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Monday, August 21, 2017
 

STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Get ready for some celestial magic as celestial mechanics present Sun Valley residents and visitors with a spectacle not witnessed here in 99 years.

The difference between a total solar eclipse and a partial one, they say, is the difference between day and night.

And, fingers crossed, the forecast is for sunny--at least, until the moon cuts in.

At the center of the experience is the opportunity to see the wispy solar corona, the sun’s upper atmosphere. Whereas the sun is a mere 10,000 degrees at its center, the corona is a million degrees Fahrenheit.

But it loses heat with age. Younger brighter stars’ flares can be has hot as 100 million degrees.

ABC-TV has positioned itself on Baldy and will be showing live coverage on local ABC affiliate stations, as well as streaming on www.facebook.com/abcnews. Local coverage starts at 10:30 a.m. and national at 11 a.m.

Steve Deffe, saw a total solar eclipse at Bridger Bowl near Bozeman, Mont., in 1979. He has eagerly taken in a couple of lectures as he plotted his viewing spot atop Trail Creek Summit.

“One of the speakers said that, when the moon moves in between earth and sun, it creates compassion in some people. Someone asked, ‘Is the line of totality going to be over Washington, D.C?” he laughed.

The first total solar eclipse recorded in Ketchum took place in 45 B.C., nearly 2,000 years after the oldest recorded eclipse recorded in 2134 BC in China.

“The Chinese thought a dragon was devouring the sun,” said Silverman. “They beat drums to scare the dragon away—and it worked!”

There have been eight total solar eclipses between that and 1918 when the last total solar eclipse darkened the valley.

The phenomenon is made possible by the fact that while the sun is 400 times larger than the moon is 400 times further away—and just in the right spot.

Enjoy it now because it hasn’t always been that way. And it won’t be in the future, said Rachel Osten, an astronomer who studies black holes and exploding stars.

In earlier times, the moon was closer to the earth so it covered the sun so completely that viewers couldn’t have seen everything we hope to see today. A couple hundred thousand years from now as the moon moves further away it won’t cover the sun to present the spectacle we’ll be privy to today.

Osten, who is attending a astronomy conference at Sun Valley, along with 400 other noted that earth is the only planet that can experience a total solar eclipse.

“Near totality you’ll be able to see Mercury, which is usually difficult to see because it’s so  close to the sun. Tomorrow on the day of the eclipse it will be easily seen,” she said.

On a normal summer day the sun, which is 60 percent bigger than when formed 4.5 billion years ago, is licking Mercury’s surface, said Astronomer Carolyn Rankin-Mallory, a member of the NASA team that discovered 17 stars.

“It’s worked on Mercury so long it’s reduced Mercury’s mountains, making the planet a smooth ball,” she said. “Venus is next. Venus will get incinerated, toasted by the sun. And that gorgeous atmosphere we love will be gone.”

And what’s after that?

Gulp. Earth.

“Next time you read about researcher’s efforts to find other planets with hospitable atmospheres you should care. Because sooner or later the human race will have to move off Earth,” she said.

Scientists will be conducting a number of studies along the line of totality. They’ll be studying atmospheric effects in Sumter, S.C., polarization studies of the sun’s corona in Madras, Ore., and infrared studies aboard a Gulfstream V jet near Chattanooga, Tenn.

Scientists will also be enlisting the aid of amateur astronomers to count the sunspots or eruptions in the sun as it changes hydrogen into helium.

Babies in utero at time of a lot of sunspots are 200 percent more likely to have birth defects than those born when there’s not so many. The peak during the last 150 years occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

But you don’t want no sunspots, said Rankin-Mallory. There was no summer for 60 years during the 1700s and 1800s the last time there were no sun spots. A rainy winter merged into a soggy spring and a cold fall. Half the population starved as the crops failed.

Some researchers are fanning out over this area to record the sound of birds and observe other animals’ reactions to the eclipse.

Orb-weaving spiders have been known to take their webs down during a total solar eclipse, just to rebuild them once the sun appeared the next morning.

All 50 states will get to see at least a partial eclipse today, The Midwest will get the longest just Before peters out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Billy Nye the Science Guy and CEO of the Planetary Society will watch it in Nebraska. Ozzy Osbourne will “Bark at the Moon” at Moonstock in Illinois. And they’ll be watching on battleships on the coast of South Carolina.

Be safe with eclipse glasses—you can get the shape of the sun burned into your retina, said astronomer Jeff Silverman.

Put on your eclipse glasses and look around the room. If you see a hint of light. throw them out. If they’re peeling or have a puncture hole in them throw them out.

And avoid street lights. They could come on in the dark and ruin your experience.

DID YOU KNOW?

One star can eat another star, thereby merging.

That song you sang about “Twinkle Twinkle little star” was really not spot on. Stars do not twinkle; rather, we’re seeing x-ray flares when we think they’re twinkling.

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